Third seed N Sriram Balaji overcame early jitters to quell a spirited challenge from compatriot Ramkumar Ramanathan in his opening match at the CCI-ITF men's US $15,000 tournament 2012, at the CCI courts, in Mumbai, on Monday.
The Chennai-based lad won 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 50 minutes.
Balaji, the second highest ATP-ranked Indian player at 321, behind top seed Vishnu Vardhan (267), started off shakily and found himself down 1-4 in the opening set before staging a brilliant recovery to take it 7-5.
He was in total control in the second, though, and broke in the ninth game before serving out for the match.
In another all-Indian contest between wild cards, Pune's Arjun Khade had things his way while overcoming Delhi's Kunal Anand 6-3, 6-0.
India's Ajai Selvaraj found the going tough against Austrian Nicolas Reissig and succumbed to a 3-6, 6-3 defeat.
In the day's longest match, Chinese Taipei players Jui-Chen Hung and Ting Yu Chuang battled for four hours and five minutes before the former prevailed 7-6(1), 5-7, 7-5.
Results:
Singles (1st round): Arjun Khade (India) bt Kunal Anand (India) 6-3, 6-0; Nicolas Reissig (Austria) bt Ajai Selvaraj (India) 6-3, 6-3; 6-Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan (India) bt Vignesh Peranamallur (India) 6-2, 6-3; 3-N. Sriram Balaji (India) bt Ramkumar Ramanathan (India) 7-5, 6-4.
Final qualifying round: Lakshit Sood (India) bt Abhijeet Tiwari (India) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; William Kendal (USA) bt Darshan Srinivasa (India) 6-2, 6-0; Rakshay Thakkar (India) bt Ronak Manjula (India) 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3; Neeraj Elangovan (India) bt Anvit Bendre (India) 6-3, 6-2; Jui-Chen Hung (Taipei) bt Ting Yu Chuang (Taipei) 7-6(1), 5-7, 7-5; Peng Chih Hsueh (Taipei) bt Akash Wagh (India) 6-2, 6-3; Sebastian Ofner (Austria) bt Rajat Maheshwari (India) 6-4, 6-2; Jatin Dahiya (India) bt Sagar Manjanna (India) 7-6(11), 6-3.
Doubles (1st round): 1-Saket Myneni/Purav Raja (India) bt Anvit Bendre/Tejas Chaukulkar (India) 6-0, 6-4; Vijayant Malik/Sunil-Kumar Sipaeya (India) bt Ajai Selvaraj/Ashwin Vijayragavan (India) 6-2, 7-5; Kunal Anand/Ronak Manuja (India) bt Neeraj Elangovan/Fariz Mohammed (India) 7-5, 6-4.
